Smile people, you live in paradise

It appears that in one of its many “retreats,” the Government and its agencies have been advised to waste our money on “public relations.” No doubt this advice has come from high-priced consultants—more waste of our money.

In the lead-up to the general election, we were bombarded with advertisements of how great this or that ministry was doing. Of course, this was a thinly disguised use (waste) of government funds for party purposes.

The elections are long over but the advertisements continue. Now I have no problem per se with public relations. If you do something worthwhile, it is okay to make the public aware. However, it is a different matter when the PR is simply an attempt to hoodwink or lie, when the reality is totally at variance with the PR.

The most blatant example is the Chris Garcia video Smile put out by the Ministry of Local Government. How can a minister be so insensitive to the realities of life in our country to tell us that everything is hunky-dory and we should “smile, our twin-island smile?”

I find the ad quite nauseating, apart from it being aired ad nauseam, and I am disappointed that Garcia would agree to be part of this deception.

It is quite laughable when the ad comes on in the middle of a newscast highlighting citizen protests about bad roads, no toilets in schools, no schools, dilapidated police stations, allegations of police brutality, no police vehicles to respond to cries for help, corruption at all levels of society, Government’s lack of accountability, and we haven’t even mentioned crime as yet. One gets the eerie feeling of being in the twilight zone.

When will our ministers realise that no amount of PR can cover for poor performance?

No amount of PR will reduce the long lines at the passport office, but we tell the person who joins the line at 2 am to smile.

No amount of PR will put water in our taps, but we tell the person who has no water to cook, wash or bathe to smile.

No amount of PR will build a school, but we tell the children huddled under a make-shift tent that is their school to smile.

A job well done does not have to be trumpeted; its beacon will always shine through for all to see.

Noel Kalicharan

UWI, St Augustine

True benefits, cost of Carnival

A recent newspaper report quoted the Tourism Minister as saying that projected expenditure by over 40,000 visitors to T&T for Carnival amounted to US$50 million or TT$335 million.

A quick cost benefit analysis reveals the following:

On the benefit side:

n Expenditure by visitors $335 million.

n Expenditure by locals and Government participating in the celebration, an estimated equal amount at $335 million.

n International creative rights and copyrights over the various aspects of the Carnival celebrations estimated at $335 million (if so much).

On the cost side:

n Expenditure by locals leaving the country to go abroad during Carnival $335 million.

n If annual GDP is $120 billion then monthly GDP is an estimated $10 billion. But during the month preceding Carnival the country virtually shuts down so we lose an estimated $5 billion, give or take a billion, in lost production of goods and services.

These costs obviously do not include the many social ills that accompany the festivities, which may permanently cripple many in physical and mental ways and whose costs are incalculable. I guess however that they are counter-balanced by the benefits of “having a good time and freeing up.”

C Rodriguez

Petit Valley

Ensure your pet has lots of space

I’d like to give an important reminder to all those people who have pets.

Please, those of you who rear fishes, hamsters, birds, rabbits, iguanas, even snakes or monkeys, make it a priority to ensure that they are not housed in an undersized cage, aquarium or whatever space they are in.

Most pet shops are to be blamed also for committing such gruesome offences. For instance, a lot of the fishes would be suffocating in extra-small containers where they cannot barely move about and where growth is prevented.

Fishes need large facilities because they need to swim and to grow. So many of us may have a fish suffering in a tiny aquarium or container not realising that it needs a very large facility to dwell in comfortably because it needs space to grow.

Another heartbreaker is where large birds are kept in super small cages in which they just sit on a stick all of their lives.

Owners do not realise how frustrated these pets can get in confined spaces.

Please let us be responsible and put some thought into what we do. So if you’re interested in having a pet, make sure and research everything possible on that animal before purchasing. Remember, an animal is not an object but it is a living being that has feelings just like you.

Another important reminder is for those of you who have pets to ensure that you feed them every day and give them clean water. I beg you to follow this advice.

Nadira Ramnath

La Brea

Cops must rise to crime threat

The call by some citizens for a limited state of emergency in certain areas of Trinidad to help curb crime is a clear indication that the anti-crime measures being adopted by our police and security forces in areas such as Morvant, Laventille and east Port-of-Spain have failed to get the desired results.

The wave of crimes in these areas did not surface overnight. Many residents in the crime districts are aware that most of the gang-related crimes are connected to the drug trade. This drug culture has been passed down by many parents to their children.

Citizens for a Better T&T (CBTT) pleaded with the authorities years ago to introduce serious anti-drug programmes through community councils and other groups but these pleas were never taken seriously. Instead we were lambasted on many occasions by people who felt the organisation was making a mountain out of a molehill.

All kinds of courses are being introduced in community councils, which are admirable, but no genuine attempt has been made to highlight the grave dangers of alcohol and illegal drug abuse to family life.

What is well-known about many of these community organisations is that they are good at arranging regular functions with a well stocked bar where even minors are sold alcoholic beverages.

I wish to point out that the La Romaine Integrated Educated Project (IEP) was the only community school in T&T which had the foresight, more than ten years ago, to set up an annual drug awareness week in T&T. It’s sad that the IEP’s attempt was not taken seriously by other schools when it mattered the most.

The police must now rise to the challenge in crime-ridden areas and do what is necessary to help curb the gang violence, which is becoming worse by the day.

While we may be focusing on Laventille, Morvant and east Port-of-Spain, more gangs are cropping up in other areas of the country. We may soon be calling for states of emergency in other areas as well if serious anti-crime measures are not put in place immediately.

Harrack Balramsingh

CBTT

La Romaine

Give cricketers same as Warriors

Congratulations to our victorious Ganga-led chutney-soca cricketers who convincingly won the Sandford Twenty/20 cricket championship in Antigua on Sunday night. They have lifted our spirits to the stars.

I hope that this victory will cement us together as a people and lead to crime reduction as it did in Guyana when that country won in 2006.

Ganga instilled a binding, decisive and cohesive team spirit that propelled team T&T to triumph over the likes of Barbados and Jamaica.

This victory will serve as an inspiration to the young cricketing fraternity to aim for the stars and to reject the easy and dangerous path to crime and lawlessness.

Every member of the team displayed a positive body language on the field that exuded confidence and the spirit to win and defend our red, black and white in the face of the challenges encountered.

Government must now correct its 2006 neglect of this team. It must organise a truly national welcome befitting the enormous national pride and euphoria that this victory has generated amongst us. It must also reward these cricketers with the similar accolade and financial gifts bestowed on our World Cup footballers.

Nothing less than national awards and $1 million must be given to each member of the victorious team.

Stephen Kangal

Caroni

The Stanford Twenty/20 final match exposed again what we have known and have not done anything to address—the inability of top regional cricketers to play spin.

The Jamaican batsmen, some of the West Indies’ best, looked like men with concrete legs. There was absolutely no foot movement within the crease, hence the outcome was not accidental.

As a Trinidadian, when Jamaica defeated Guyana in the semis, I knew then that T&T was going to defeat Jamaica.

Though I am extremely happy about our success, I am simultaneously saddened for the West Indies due to the incompetence shown by top regional batsmen.

How could individuals reach the top of their country’s cricket talent without repeatedly demonstrating the rudimentary skills of batting.

Chris Gayle is a classic example of that failure in our coaching and player development. He and the other Jamaicans believe that swinging their bats at high speed without foot movement will make them successful. In fact, it makes their batting highly unreliable.

And until we address this fundamental problem, T&T and Guyana will continue to dominate this form of the game with their spinners and West Indies cricket will continue to struggle to find batsmen with world class competence.

Paul DR Taylor

Tobago

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